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Supportive Care in Cancer
Published in: Supportive Care in Cancer 4/2012

01-04-2012 | Original Article

Fatigue assessment and rehabilitation outcomes in patients with brain tumors

Authors: Bo Ryun Kim, Min Ho Chun, Eun Young Han, Don-Kyu Kim

Published in: Supportive Care in Cancer | Issue 4/2012

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Abstract

Objectives

This study seeks to investigate the fatigue severity and the relationship among fatigue and other associated factors in patients with brain tumors, and to evaluate the rehabilitation outcome on fatigue.

Design

We assessed 25 patients in whom brain tumors had been resected and transferred to the rehabilitation department of our hospital. Patients were evaluated for fatigue severity using the Piper Fatigue Scale (PFS) and the Brief Fatigue Inventory (BFI), for mood using the Beck Depression Inventory, for motor function using the Motricity Index (MI), for functional status using the Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS) scale and the Modified Barthel Index (MBI), and for quality-of-life using the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality-of-Life Questionnaire-Core 30 (EORTC QLQ-C30). We also measured the levels of serum hemoglobin, C-reactive protein, albumin, and creatine kinase; and anthropometric variables before and 4 weeks after rehabilitation.

Results

Of the 25 patients, 21 (84.0%) reported fatigue during the previous week. The average PFS score was 4.6 ± 1.8 and the average BFI score 5.2 ± 2.2, indicating the moderate level of fatigue. Patients with recurrent tumors had significantly higher PFS scores than did those with initial tumors. Fatigue correlated significantly with the KPS, MBI, and EORTC QLQ-C30 physical functioning and insomnia scales. In addition, insomnia was a significant predictor of fatigue before rehabilitation, and the baseline fatigue scales, MBI, MI, and EORTC QLQ-C30 physical functioning scale were the important independent predictors of fatigue after rehabilitation. During rehabilitation, the KPS, MBI, and MI scores improved significantly, whereas total PFS and BFI scores did not change.

Conclusions

These findings suggest that patients with brain tumors commonly complain of moderate level of fatigue, which may reduce daily functioning and quality of life, with sleep disturbance being a significant predictor of fatigue. During rehabilitation, functional outcomes and motor power showed improvements in those patients, not aggravating fatigue.
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Metadata
Title
Fatigue assessment and rehabilitation outcomes in patients with brain tumors
Authors
Bo Ryun Kim
Min Ho Chun
Eun Young Han
Don-Kyu Kim
Publication date
01-04-2012
Publisher
Springer-Verlag
Published in
Supportive Care in Cancer / Issue 4/2012
Print ISSN: 0941-4355
Electronic ISSN: 1433-7339
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-011-1153-5

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